


Rewind and Press Play

by mystyrust



Series: Ectober 2020 [3]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Ectober (Danny Phantom), Ectober Week 2020 (Danny Phantom, Gaslighting, Gen, Groundhog Day, ReZero AU, Rewind - Freeform, Temporary Amnesia, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop, ooc side characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27236497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mystyrust/pseuds/mystyrust
Summary: Ectober Week 2020Day 3: Rewind /Cold CaseToday was the first time Danny successfully made it to school. Yesterday, he died while crossing the street and getting hit by a speeding truck. The day before, he died when the construction site on his commute collapsed, piercing his body with metal beams. The day before that, he died from a drive by shooter. Danny isn’t sure why, but the last few times he died, he’d just wake up again in his bedroom, earlier that day. He’s looping through time, but for everyone else, it was just Monday.
Series: Ectober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985209
Comments: 6
Kudos: 75





	Rewind and Press Play

Today was the first time Danny successfully made it to school. Yesterday, he died while crossing the street and getting hit by a speeding truck. The day before, he died when the construction site on his commute collapsed, piercing his body with metal beams. The day before that, he died from a drive by shooter. Danny isn’t sure why, but the last few times he died, he’d just wake up again in his bedroom, earlier that day. He’s looping through time, but for everyone else, it was just Monday.

The first time it happened, Danny thought it was a dream. When Danny decided to change his commute route to school because of a dream, he thought he was going crazy – but then when he heard police sirens chase an armed vehicle the next street over, he decided that _no_ he was not crazy. His dreams were real somehow. And he dies in them every single time.

As he was about to enter school grounds, Danny was grabbed from behind by his backpack, and pulled into a nearby alley.

“How are you doing it?!”

The mugger is a blue skinned… creature? Danny isn’t sure what to call him. The humanoid creature had a tail instead of legs, and it was _floating_ , Danny noticed. A ghost? “How do you know to avoid the traps I set for you?! How do you avoid death?!” The ghost shook Danny by the collar of his shirt.

What the heck was Danny supposed to do with this information!? But maybe he could stall with some sort of lie.

“Because I have the power of God, and Anime on my side!”

Danny let out an ugly scream that left the ghost more confused than scared. He took advantage of the ghost’s confusion, shoving the nearby trash onto its face. Then he made a break for it, running for the school grounds. If he could get a single witness, the mugger would go away, right? Danny’s lungs nearly gave out, but he made it to Casper High school grounds, with other students lazily walking through the front door.

For whatever reason, the ghost did not follow. Danny turned right and left, looking for his pursuer, but he couldn’t see anyone or anything with blue skin on Casper High’s grounds. Weird.

* * *

“So I was mugged by a ghost on my way to school today,” Danny told his friends Sam and Tucker at lunch.

“So that’s why you were out of breath so early in the morning, huh,” Tucker looked up from his salad. “Also, ghosts?”

“I don’t know what else to call it! It was blue and floating! It wore a lab coat and looked like it could be a person, but dead.”

“Dude,” Sam said, finishing a bite of her burger. “Ghosts aren’t real. Are you sure it wasn’t… something else?”

“I mean it grabbed my shirt and shook me and everything!” Danny explained that he was even able to get away by using the dumbest distraction tactic. For whatever reason, his friends didn’t appreciate the vine reference.

“If he was a ghost, how come he was able to touch you?” Tucker asked. That… was actually a good question.

“I dunno, maybe he’s – ”

“Danny, maybe you’re not okay after all,” Sam interrupted. “Maybe you need rest. Let your brain recharge.”

“I’m not making this up, Sam! This really happened to me!” Danny almost yelled in frustration. This was annoying – his friends were invalidating his experiences, and he most definitely was living through a time loop where he died on the way to school.

“Oh yeah, also I think I’m living in a ground hog day loop.” That definitely caught his friends’ attention.

“What makes you say that?” Sam asked.

“Well, I had a dream that I died on my way to school – a few times, actually. And when I avoided the places that I died in my dreams, I made it to school – minus the almost mugging by a ghost, that is.”

“Looping through time _and_ getting almost mugged by a ghost? Danny that sounds like the premise of a really bad fanfiction.”

“Guys, seriously!” Danny protested. “I’m – ” But what was the point? They’d listen to him, but they wouldn’t believe him. Some friends they were.

“Whatever, I’ll eat lunch by myself.”

Was Danny really schizophrenic? No one saw the ghost mugging him, after all. And he can’t really prove to anyone that he was looping through time only to die before making it to school. But he remembers how dying _felt_ in each dream – and woke him up with a jolt every morning, drenched in sweat.

But what if the ghost mugged him again on the way back from school? He’d be waiting, right when the bells ring, to catch Danny. So he’d have to go home at an unexpected time, to avoid running into the mugger, Danny reasoned. Might as well go home now, his mood soured during lunch.

He packed up his bag and headed straight out the front door, not even stopping by the principal’s office or his locker.

He was halfway home when the mugger ghost showed up again.

“Look can we reschedule? I’ve had a shitty day,”

“Sorry kid, it’s nothing personal. Just business.” The ghost’s hand glowed green, and pierced Danny’s abdomen. He could feel his organs sizzling, blood dripping down his stomach and mouth, his body falling down, his head meeting the pavement with a sickening _crack_ – and then he woke up in his bedroom again, gasping for breath and covered in sweat. 

He looked at the clock against his night stand. It was the same time he’s been waking up everyday, for who knows how many days at this point. The date hasn’t changed either.

Normally, Danny wouldn’t mind living in a groundhog day loop, he thinks, but he doesn’t want to live in a time loop if he keeps dying. This was so much worse than the movie.

His friends were no help, so he does the first thing that comes to mind – which is admittedly, incredibly stupid, but it’s okay, since he’s looping. He ran to school, avoiding all the death traps, but went directly to the alleyway where he met the mugger in the last loop.

The blue ghost is admittedly baffled.

“Why do you keep trying to kill me?!” Danny yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at the ghost.

“What? Why do you – ”

“And why do I keep looping?!”

“I-I don’t know why!” The ghost finally stuttered. “I don’t know how or why you manage to avoid my death traps, but _he_ said that if I kill you, I can escape!”

Why would the ghost need to escape? And who wants Danny dead?

“Who is he?! And where are we?!”

“I-I wasn’t supposed to – I can’t – ” why was the ghost confused when Danny is the confused one?

Their conversation – or lack thereof – is interrupted by the sound of bells ringing, and footsteps turning into jogs. School was about to start, and with students on the move, so was the likelihood of the ghost being witnessed.

“I don’t have time for this!” The ghost charged a green bolt – __an _ectoblast_ Danny remembered, why did he know that? – and Danny fell to the floor before he smelled the singe of burning flesh. His burning flesh, his organs spilling out on the pavement. The ghost was fast, delivering a fatal blow that would have Danny dead in minutes, before Danny could even turn around or call for help.

 _Ahh, if only I had a thermos_.

A thermos? That didn’t make sense; maybe he was going crazy. So when he woke up in his bedroom again, after calming down and making sure his guts were still inside his stomach, Danny headed to the basement. His parents were cryptozoologists – sure, they’d have some cell cultures or petri dishes in the fridge downstairs, but Danny’s instincts were telling him to look for a thermos there. A very specific type of thermos.

And he found it, in the fridge.

The soup container shouldn’t fill him up with confidence, but it does.

He’s met that ghost before. He knows what makes this thermos different. Danny is on the verge of remembering something, but the details slip the edge of his mind. But maybe he can buy himself time, by trying out something different in this time loop.

“Mom, Dad,… I don’t feel too good. Can I stay home from school today?”

“Why? What happened, sweetie?” His mother put her hand on his forehead. “You don’t have a running temperature.”

“I…well – I had a bad dream, and – ”

“Nonsense!” his father interrupted. “No nightmare can keep a Fenton man down!”

“I’m nervous about school and… I just need extra time to…uh….finish some homework?” Danny hated how it came out sounding like a question. Clearly, his mother also hated it.

“None of that now, young man.” Her brow furrowed, and even her voice dropped. “You went out with Sam and Tucker this weekend because ‘you finished your homework’ and now you’re telling me you didn’t?”

Danny gulped. For his mother, the weekend was just yesterday, but Danny doesn’t even remember how long he’s been looping through time anymore.

“But I – “

“No buts. There are consequences for your actions. So deal with them.”

His parents returned to their lab in the basement, but Danny remained there, standing still in shock. Something felt off. He didn’t expect that kind of response from his mother… but he was expecting his sister to defend him. His sister Jazz. Where was she? Danny doesn’t remember the last time he even saw her.

Her room was empty, her shoes were gone, and her car was missing… so maybe Jazz already left for school. Danny hoped that was the case.

He hesitantly grabbed his bag and shoes, and walked out of the door. Just like his last run, he avoided all the death traps that he experienced firsthand, and made his way to the alley way where he met the ghost the first time, where he met

“Technus,”

“…Ghost Child,”

The two stared at each other, neither of them breaking eye contact or closing the distance between them. Danny’s memories were vague, but he can remember doing this before. Skipping school to fight ghosts, and trapping them and releasing them back into the ghost zone – the portal to which should have been in his basement, but for some reason, wasn’t.

This time, Danny acted first – with the thermos already in hand, he pointed the open end at the ghost, who was sucked in with a flash of blue light. Just like he remembered it would.

Danny’s memories of his past haven’t been matching up with present, as more and more memories resurface, he’s not sure what to believe anymore. But why is there a mismatch in his memories and reality? And why did he forget in the first place?

_Time out._

Danny isn’t sure where the voice came from, but the trees stop rustling in the wind, the birds stop chirping, and he finds the familiar silence of another ghost whose name yet again escaped his memory. Said ghost appeared from thin air, with a purple cloak a staff, and some gear like necklace that Danny is sure he’s seen before.

“Daniel,” the ghost said, but his voice fizzled with static. “Finally. I’m trying to help from out here, but to escape, you need to _remember_ ,”

“Remember what?” If Danny knew what he was forgetting, he could search for clues.

The ghost’s form began to fizzle.

“Remember that you are more powerful than _he_ is,” and the ghost dissolved into thin air.

Danny kicked against the alley in frustration. Who is “he” and why is everyone so afraid of him?! He most probably wasn’t Voldemort, so why didn’t anyone just give him a NAME to work with?!

Sound seemed to return, as Danny heard the rustling of leaves, the jog of footsteps, and the ringing school bell in the distance. Since Technus wouldn’t be around to kill him at the end of the day, Danny supposed he could just go to school, and figure out what was wrong with his memories with Sam and Tucker’s help.

* * *

Though he isn’t sure why he expected any help from his “friends”.

Sam had some beef with Tucker. No really – they were fighting over which brand of beef was tastier and worth the price. Sam argued that pricier meat was always superior, and Tucker shouted back that maybe Sam’s palette was too soft for “real” meat because commoners had superior creativity in the kitchen, neither of them were interested in hearing what Danny wanted to say and shot him down when he tried to interrupt to change the topic.

The entire conversation felt… “off brand”. Danny remembered Sam as someone who would never flaunt her wealth, someone who was an “ultra recycle vegetarian” for goodness’s sake. He remembered Tucker as someone who was fun to talk to, someone who would listen to what others had to say and was respectful of others’ opinions, instead of …whatever he saw today.

He walked away from the lunch table – this version of Sam and Tucker would never even notice if he left, so there was no point in sticking around, Danny reasoned. There were no other empty lunch tables, but there was a lunch table with people who weren’t talking to each other – other losers, who didn’t have friends either. Danny joined the new table with his lunch, and despite the noise and people around him, he never felt more alone than in that moment.

He also felt like a huge freak, with secrets he didn’t understand. Why did Technus call him “Ghost Child”? How did he meet the other ghost in the cloak? He was missing chunks of his memory, but his memories felt just within reach. If he could just find the key to the dam, he could lower the barrier in his brain and have all his memories flood back to him. But what was the missing key? How could he reconcile the differences between his present and his past?

“Hey losers,” an irritating jock voice called out to his table. Everyone instantly looked up at the owner of the voice, except for Danny, who was too lost in his thoughts. The jock must not have liked that, because he approached Danny until he was close enough to cast a shadow on Danny’s lunch tray.

“When I talk to you, loser, you pay attention to me,”

Danny doesn’t know if it’s the feeling of loneliness, or something buzzing at the edge of his memories, but he’s just _had_ it.

“I don’t know anyone named ‘Loser’. Do you?” A few collective gasps could be heard from the table of people at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

“Or, is that _your_ name?” Danny turned his head up to look at the jock’s face. A collective of ‘ooohs’ and ‘buuurns’ chorus through the losers and jocks alike, but Danny wasn’t basking in the social victory. Danny knew the blonde haired, wide shouldered football player who was bullying him. Because even in his memories, Dash bullied him.

“What did you say, Fenton?!”

The jock lifts Danny up by his shirt, but Danny is too busy connecting dots in his brain to remember to be scared – if what Technus and the other ghost said were true, then it’s not like this was _real,_ anyway. This was the first time his memories aligned with the present. Danny’s thoughts drown out the people shouting to fight fight fight because –

Fenton. That’s his name. Fenturd? No. Fento – Danny Fenton. Danny Fento – ? Danny Fan – ? Fanto – ?

Phantom. Danny Phantom. That’s right, he called himself that.

With strength he didn’t know he had, Danny ripped the jock’s grip off his shirt, then ran down the hallways till he found an empty classroom. He inspected his shirt, expecting to find a rip or tear in it but finding none. The ghosts, the name, Clockwork’s ominous message – holy shit that ghost in the cloak was _Clockwork_ – and Danny remembered.

He fought ghosts. But he also was one. Or… half of one.

He closed his eyes, searched deep into himself till he found the core of cold ice at the center of his being, and two white rings traveled up and down his body. When he opened his eyes, his clothes were replaced with a black jumpsuit, with white gloves, boots, and belt. A white accented ‘DP’. His hair was white to match, too. He was Danny Phantom.

The events of the past few days came back to him. Clockwork warned him that someone escaped, and needed Danny’s help catching him. Danny was flying through the ghost zone, looking for the escapee, when he accidentally flew through…through… a bubble? Of some sort. And then he woke up _here_.

Where ever _here_ was.

But if he was chasing a ghost before being trapped in some ‘bubble’ and waking up in a personal purgatory designed just for him, then that narrowed down the perpetrator. Danny’s first guess would have been to blame Nocturne for the never ending nightmare, but he remembered what Clockwork had asked him to do, and warned him about.

Nocturne was in custody of the observants, after all. But… _he_ had escaped..

Danny now understood why Technus didn’t name drop the one who wanted Danny dead; because telling someone that their own worst enemy was themselves was really awkward. And possibly grammatically incorrect.

Danny flew out, phasing through the roof of the school building and heading straight towards the Nasty Burger, where this all went down _the first time_. The outdoor seating was empty – it was the middle of a weekday and teenagers were in school, after all – so Danny landed on the solid ground and steeled himself before opening the door to ominous fast food joint.

The inside was no fast food joint. It may as well have been Pariah’s Keep – musty stone walls, large stone columns that held sky high ceilings, and centuries old royal rugs that led down to a throne at the end of the hall were the first things that caught Danny’s eyes. This definitely wasn’t Amity Park anymore. Though, now that Danny started trusting his memories again, this might have never been Amity Park to begin with.

The throne room at the far end was occupied, by none other than Danny’s worst enemy – himself. A version of himself from 10 years in the future, where he turned evil from grief. Dan perked an eyebrow in amusement when Danny walked up to the throne, shoulders wide set and guard up.

“So, you finally woke up. Just when I was starting to have fun.”

Was Technus even real? Well, it wasn’t really important.

“So you had to nerf me to even deal any damage. Was the last time too much for you?” This evil future version was taller, more muscular, more experienced – and despite that, Danny had defeated him before.

Dan’s face twisted in brief flash of anger but it was soon replaced by the creepy smile that curled up his lips.

“I exist outside your timeline now, we both already know this,” Dan got up from his throne and walked down the platform, pacing slowly around Danny. “I don’t need you to exist. But if I turned you into _another one_ , even more powerful than me, then together nothing could stand in our way in the ghost zone,” Dan lets out a Stereotypical Evil Laugh™, while Danny stared at the man, while trying to take it all in.

“So I had to mold you, with even greater trauma than what molded me. I isolated you, though our mutual _friend_ found us faster than expected. I suspect he was responsible for expediting your awakening.” Dan stopped walking, and stared at Danny straight in the eyes. “Though I can work with what damage I’ve done to you so far,” The flames in Dan’s hair flare brighter, darkening the shadow of his face and highlighting the eerie glint in his eyes.

“So, are you a sadist, or a masochist?”

“Hmm, so you still have some fighting spirit. Guess I’ll need to provide you with some _tender loving care_.”

Dan closed the distance between the two, the older Fenton delivering a gut wrenching punch to Danny that launched him into the air. He landed with a crack against the stone walls high in the ceiling. If he weren’t half ghost, he would be dead in an instant, just like the times the steel beams broke his back and ruptured his stomach, or the times the Technus burned through his flesh and his guts, or like – Danny shivers, the memory still too raw. He gingerly touched his stomach, where the punch hit. It was bruised, but whole. No big hole or tiny holes. 

Right, he failed _those_ times, but this time will count.

He launched ectoblasts, Dan launched ectoblasts back. Some collide in the middle, some of Danny’s hits land true, but most of Dan’s attacks hit Danny hard. A very dark part of Danny wondered what would happen if he died here. Would he wake up again in his bedroom, just like every other time? Would he remember it this time, or would Dan wipe his memories and start over from a different save point?

Danny couldn’t take that chance.

“I’m not you! I won’t turn out like you!”

“No you won’t. You’ll be much worse. I’ll make sure of it.” 

Clockwork told him he was stronger than Dan. Last time, he beat Dan because Dan didn’t expect him to use a new power he learned. And Danny has since learned even more new powers - now that he can remember more.

The smoke began to clear, but Danny was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a sad puddle of ectoplasm left behind that began to seep into the ground.

“Already?” Dan walked up to where Danny’s ectoplasm lay. “Nice try. You know invisibility doesn’t work when you’re fighting against another ghost,” Dan smirked, before turning invisible himself. Ghosts that were invisible could see each other, so there was no point in hiding – except, Danny was still nowhere to be seen.

Dan turned right and left, wondering where Danny could have possibly gone.

“Surprise, bitch!”

Danny reformed from the splattered ectoplasm in an instant, and iced the hell out of Dan in that split second.

A trick he learned from Dani. A trick that he would have never learned had he taken the Evil Route. The ice is infused with ectoplasm, so it doesn’t melt easy, it doesn’t break easy, and if Dan tries to escape, Danny will be right there to refreeze in an instant. He was always fast at this.

He closed his eyes, relieved for the first time since his world began to fall apart, and then opened his eyes – for real this time. Not in fake Amity Park in his fake bedroom, but in a dream bubble, floating somewhere in the ghost zone. Dan was there too, floating inside the same bubble, but still in the reclusive dream state that Danny had just woken up from. Danny wasted no time in flying out of his bubble prison, and Clockwork applied some gear glyphs to the bubble, seemingly trapping Dan in that state.

“You took quite some time in there,” the time ghost said, acknowledging Danny’s presence.

“Yeah well, had to catch up on some sleep, didn’t I?”

Even with the ability to go back in time, he couldn't just rewrite his past; they were part of who he was. But the possibilities of the future were limitless.

**Author's Note:**

> So like.... I've always wanted to write a time looping / groundhog day DP fic. Since this was an ectober one shot I definitely sped up the pacing. Got to write Dan though! And a short battle. If you've read this far thanks, for reading!


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